UNIV.  OF  FL  Lib. 
DOCUMENTS  PEP" 


U.S.  DEPOSITORY 


U.  S.  DEPARTMENT  OF  AGRICULTURE, 

►      BUREAU  OF   ANIMAL   INDUSTRY, 


A.  D.  MELVIN,  Chief  of  Hurkau. 


EFFECTS  OF  TICK  ERADICATION  ON  THE  CATTLE 
INDUSTRY  OF  THE  SOUTH. 

By  W.  F.  Ward, 
Senior  Animal  Husbandman,  Animal  Husbandry  Division.  Bureau  of  Animal 

Industry. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Since  1906  the  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry  of  the  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture  has  employed  veterinarians  and  assist- 
ants in  various  Southern  States  in  the  work  of  exterminating  south- 
ern cattle  ticks.  This  parasite  not  only  sucks  blood  from  the  cattle 
upon  which  they  live,  but  also  transmits  to  the  cattle  the  micropara- 
site  which  causes  the  dreaded  disease  Texas  fever  or  southern  tick 
fever.  This  disease  kills  more  cattle  in  the  South  than  all  other 
diseases  combined.  The  work  of  maintaining  a  Federal  quarantine 
line  and  preventing  ticks  from  infecting  new  areas  north  of  this 
line  and  at  the  same  time  eradicating  the  ticks  from  an  area  of 
198,802  square  miles  in  seven  years  time  was  no  small  task,  but  on 
November  1,  1913,  this  had  been  done,  and  more  than  one-fourth  of 
the  infected  area  had  been  cleaned  up.  The  work  is  being  continued, 
and  farmers  are  taking  it  up  more  readily  than  was  formerly  done, 
so  that  greater  progress  should  be  made  in  eradicating  the  pest  than 
has  been  accomplished  heretofore.  The  increased  values  of  cattle 
due  to  their  scarcity,  and  the  realization  that  far  better  cattle  can  be 
raised  when  they  are  not  ticky,  now  act  as  stimulants  to  the  tick- 
eradication  work. 

The  cattle  of  the  southern  portion  of  the  United  States  vary 
greatly  in  size  and  quality,  according  to  the  location  of  the  farms 
and  the  care  which  has  been  exercised  in  handling  the  herd.  The 
native  southern  cattle  are  small  in  size,  variable  in  color,  usually  poor 
in  milking  qualities,  slow  of  growth,  and  poor  in  quality  from  the 

Note. — This  paper  details  the  recent  improvements  in  the  cattle  and  pastures  in  the 
tick-free  areas  of  the  Soul  hern  States  and  suggests  methods  of  improvement  which  should 
be  adopted  as  soon  as  ticks  have  been  eradicated  from  any  section.  Intended  for  distribu- 
tion in  the  tick-infested  region, 

29209°— 14 1 


V  EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION. 

standpoint  of  beef  production.  This  may  be  due  to  a  number  of 
causes,  very  prominent  among  which  stands  the  cattle  tick.  These 
animals  could  not  grow  normally  while  young  nor  develop  when 
older  while  they  were  infested  with  ticks,  which  not  only  decreased 
the  vitality  of  the  animals  by  the  drain  upon  the  blood  supply,  but 
weakened  and  stunted  them  by  transmitting  the  protozoa  of  Texas 
fever.  Then,  too,  these  cattle  could  not  be  improved  rapidly  by 
crossing  with  good  beef  animals,  because  these  beef  cattle  were 
usually  brought  in  from  the  North  and  would  generally  die  of  fever 
before  they  proved  of  much  service.  This  happened  so  often  that 
the  shipping  of  good  cattle  into  the  South  was  discouraged  and 
almost  given  up  for  several  years.  The  scrub  was  said  to  be  the 
only  animal  which  could  withstand  the  former  conditions  in  the 
South,  but  in  reality  the  animals  which  were  submitted  to  these  con- 
ditions for  a  period  of  years  often  deteriorated  until  a  scrub  re- 
sulted. Scrub  cattle  were,  therefore,  accepted,  not  because  they  were 
wanted,  nor  because  there  was  no  desire  for  better  stock,  but  because 
the  cattle  tick,  frequently  combined  with  poor  treatment,  immature 
breeding  under  range  conditions,  and  often  inbreeding  for  genera- 
tions, gave  scrubs  as  a  result.  This  held  true  for  so  many  years 
that  the  idea  became  fixed  that  only  the  scrub  would  live  in  the 
South  despite  any  precautions  that  might  be  taken  or  conditions 
which  might  be  changed. 

However,  the  use  of  purebred  beef  bulls  upon  these  herds  of  scrub 
cows,  especially  when  the  herd  has  been  kept  free  of  ticks,  has  re- 
sulted in  such  an  improvement  in  the  calves,  both  as  to  size  and 
quality,  that  the  old  notion  that  good  cattle  could  not  be  raised  in 
the  South  is  rapidly  being  dispelled. 

IMPROVEMENT  OF  THE  CATTLE. 

The  more  progressive  farmers  in  sections  where  the  cattle  tick  has 
been  eradicated  have  purchased  good  bulls  to  use  in  grading  up  their 
herds.  The  result  has  been  wonderful.  High-grade  cows,  produc- 
ing deep,  broad,  blocky  calves  that  mature  into  800  to  900  pound 
steers  at  2  years  old  have  now  replaced  the  small,  cheap  scrubs  that 
were  formerly  on  the  farm.  Scrub  calves  that  were  formerly  worth 
from  $4  to  $7  at  12  months  of  age  are  supplanted  by  the  grade  beef 
calves  that  weigh  450  to  600  pounds  at  a  year  old  and  sell  for  $15  to 
$30  a  head.  Such  grade  calves  have  been  marketed  for  the  last  three 
years  by  the  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry  in  the  Alabama  cattle-feed- 
ing experiments  at  prices  ranging  from  $25  to  $36  a  head  when 
fattened  before  being  put  upon  the  market.1  Good  profits  were  made 
on  raising  and  feeding  them. 

1  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry  Bulletin  147. 


EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION.  3 

In  counties  which  have  been  released  from  quarantine  because  of 
the  eradication  of  the  cattle  tick  the  live-stock  industry  has  imme- 
diately begun  to  improve,  for  better  breeding  bulls  have  been  shipped 
into  these  counties  and  the  cattle  have  advanced  in  price.  This 
improvement  has  taken  place  on  the  farms  of  men  who  are  primarily 
interested  in  the  cattle  business  and  not  on  the  small  farms  where  but 
few  cattle  are  kept.  It  is  well  known  that  the  small  farmers  out- 
number the  cattlemen  many  times  over,  hence  the  small  farmer  is  not 
getting  the  full  benefit  to  be  derived  from  the  work  of  cleaning  up  a 
county.  There  are  a  number  of  reasons  why  this  is  true,  chief  among 
which  is  the  fact  that  he  has  not  cows  enough  to  justify  him  in  buy- 
ing a  good  bull,  and  very  few  of  them  have  the  monev  which  thev 
could  spare  for  this  purpose.  Then,  too,  because  of  the  fact  that  he 
has  but  two  or  three  cows  he  is  often  indifferent  to  what  they  are 
bred.     There  is  the  mistake.     If  he  has  but  two  cows,  all  the  more 


Pig.  1. — Export  steers  on  pasture  in  Virginia.      (Courtesy  of  Virginia   Department  of 

Agriculture.) 

important  is  it  that  he  breed  them  to  the  best  bull  he  can,  instead  of 
turning  them  out  to  mate  with  any  scrub  they  find,  because  the  man 
who  produces  a  few  calves  is  invariably  in  a  better  position  to  raise 
good  ones  than  the  large  breeder  of  stock,  as  better  care  and  more 
attention  can  be  given  to  them.  Again,  the  small  farmer  often  needs 
the  monev  which  good  calves  would  bring  far  more  than  does  the 
farmer  who  is  well  fixed  and  owns  quite  a  herd  of  stock.  It  will 
cost  but  little  more  to  keep  a  good  cow,  whether  for  milk  or  beef 
purposes,  than  to  keep  a  scrub,  and  the  net  income  will  be  many 
times  greater  on  the  former,  so  why  not  produce  a  high-priced  calf 
too  ?  In  these  times  of  high-priced  live  stock  it  is  just  as  important 
for  the  farmer  to  breed  his  cow  to  a  good  bull  as  it  is  to  send  his  mare 
to  a  good  stallion.  The  difference  in  price  between  the  progeny 
from  the  scrub  and  from  the  good  sire  is  relatively  as  great  with  the 
cow  as  with  the  mare ;  yet  how  many  of  our  small  farmers  have  made 


4  EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION. 

a  practice  of  taking  a  cow  to  a  good  bull  instead  of  breeding  her  to 
some  little  angular  scrub,  just  because  lie  was  near  at  hand,  although 
he  was  worthless  for  any  purpose? 

If  these  small  farmers  are  to  gel  their  just  benefits  and  profits 
from  the  work  the}7  have  helped  to  accomplish  in  the  county,  they 
must  begin  the  practice  of  sending  their  cows  to  a  good  bull  to  be 
bred.  This  is  done  by  the  -mall  farmers  of  the  corn  belt,  and  accounts 
largely  for  the  high  prices  of  cattle  in  those  States.  The  farmer 
there  who  raises  from  3  to  10  cattle  a  year  often  has  better  animals 
than  the  regular  cattlemen. 

The  first  objection  raised  against  this  method  by  the  farmer  of 
the  South,  however,  may  be  that  there  are  no  good  bulls  in  his  neigh- 
borhood. If  this  is  the  case,  why  can  not  several  of  these  farmers 
buy  a  bull  to  be  kept  at  some  centrally  located  farm  for  breeding?- 
Or  if  some  farmer  knew  that  his  neighbors  would  patronize  a  bull 
in  the  same  manner  that  they  do  a  stallion  or  a  jack,  how  long  would 
it  be  before  some  one  shipped  in  a  good  bull?  This  could  be  ac- 
complished by  the  farmers  organizing  bulb  clubs,  either  for  the  pur- 
chase of  a  bull  or  pledging  themselves  to  breed  their  cows  to  a  good 
bull  at  a  reasonable  fee,  provided  some  one  in  the  community  would 
buy  one.  A  certain  time  could  be  fixed  for  this  breeding,  say,  just 
after  sundown  or  at  noon,  in  order  to  find  the  owner  of  the  bull  at 
home.  This  method  was  followed  by  one  farmer  in  southern  In- 
diana, who  kept  an  exceptionally  good  bull  for  his  own  use.  In 
some  years  as  many  as  40  outside  cows,  belonging  to  30  or  32  people, 
were  bred  to  this  bull  at  a  fee  of  $1  for  a  bull  calf  and  $1.50  for  a 
heifer.  In  this  way  the  owner  secured  a  nice  sum  to  help  pay  for  the 
keep  of  the  bull,  and  at  the  same  time  cattle  all  over  the  community 
were  improved.  The  effect  of  this  one  bull  upon  the  cattle  of  that 
neighborhood  could  be  seen  for  several  years.  Some  of  the  cows 
brought  to  that  bull  were  led  from  a  distance  of  1  to  1J  miles,  and 
where  care  was  taken  to  bring  the  cow  quietly  it  was  seldom  neces- 
sary to  return  her  for  another  service. 

IMPROVEMENT  OF  THE  PASTURE.1 

The  farmers  can  raise  more  and  better  cattle  by  devoting  a  Little 
time  and  attention  to  improving  their  pastures.  Bermuda  and  car- 
pet grass  are  the  two  standard  pasture  grasses  which  should  be  used 
as  a  foundation  for  making  pastures.  The  Bermuda  will  do  well  on 
all  soils,  but  especially  on  the  stiffer  soils,  while  the  carpet  grass  will 
do  exceedingly  well  on  the  sandy  soils.  If  these  grasses  are  not  al- 
ready present,  the  Bermuda  should  be  planted  during  the  wet  weather 
of  the  spring,  wdien  other  work  can  not  be  done.     Bermuda  sod  or 

1  I'm-  ;i  full  discussion  of  this  subject,  see  Farmers'  Bulletin  509  of  the  U.  S.  Department 
of  Agriculture. 


EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION.  5 

cuttings  should  be  used  for  planting.  The  carpet  grass  seed  can  not 
he  purchased  on  the  market,  hut  if  the  carpet  grass  is  not  grazed 
after  July  it  may  he  cut  in  Septemher  and  the  cut  grass  containing 
the  seed  scattered  over  the  pasture  lands.  The  grass  may  also  be 
propagated  by  transplanting  the  sod.  Once  it  gets  started  in  a  pas- 
ture it  soon  spreads  over  the  entire  pasture  if  grazed  by  cattle.  Graz- 
ing and  trampling  seem  essential  to  its  best  growth.  The  seeds  of 
various  kinds  of  clovers  or  grasses  should  be  sown  upon  the  pasture 
lands  in  order  to  extend  the  grazing  season.  In  the  Southeast,  if  4 
or  5  pounds  per  acre  of  bur  clover  seed  (in  the  bur)  is  scattered  about 
the  pasture  in  August  and  an  equal  amount  of  lespedeza  and  white 
clover  in  March,  these  clovers  will  help  the  pasture  wonderfully  and 


.  -. — Steers  on  pasture  in  Virginia.      (Courtesy  of  Virginia  Experiment  Station.) 


Fig 


will  spread  so  that  in  a  few  years  they  will  be  found  all  over  the 
ground.  The  bur  clover  gives  good  grazing  in  February  and  March, 
the  white  clover  from  April  1  to  July  1,  and  the  lespedeza  from 
July  1  until  frost  in  the  fall.  All  of  these  grow  well  on  Bermuda  sod 
and  reseed  themselves  each  year.  A  little  alsike  clover,  Paspalum 
dilatatum,  and  red-top  grass  planted  on  damp  bottom  lands  produce 
excellent  grazing.  The  seed  of  Paspalum  are  high  in  price  and  are 
low  in  germination,  so  it  is  rarely  advisable  to  purchase  seed.  The 
best  method  is  to  strip  the  seed  from  plants  by  hand  in  October  or 
November  and  sow  them  over  the  pasture  lands  at  once,  and  imme- 
diately disk  the  land.  A  fair  stand  is  often  secured  by  scattering  the 
seed  on  top  of  the  sod  and  giving  no  further  attention. 


b  EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION. 

In  portions  of  Texas  and  Oklahoma  where  conditions  are  so  differ- 
ent from  those  in  the  Southeastern  States  some  of  the  methods  ad- 
vocated above  are  undesirable.  For  instance,  on  some  of  the  semi- 
arid  lands.  Bermuda  grass,  red-top,  Paspalum  dMatatum,  and  the 
clovers  will  not  grow,  and  planting  them  would  be  a  waste  of  time 
and  money;  but  there  are  the  native  grasses,  mesquite  trees,  and 
cactus,  which  furnish  some  feed  for  the  cattle.  Then,  too,  milo  maize 
and  kafir  corn  replace  the  Indian  corn  grown  east  of  the  Mississippi 
for  forage  crops.  Alfalfa  also  does  well  on  irrigated  land  and  on 
some  of  the  soils  where  as  much  as  33  inches  of  rain  falls  during  the 
year.  Kafir  corn  and  milo  maize  will  make  excellent  crops  of  forage 
under  drought  conditions  which  would  destroy  a  crop  of  corn.  They 
can  be  used  as  dry  fodders  and  grain  and  they  make  a  good  qualit}r 
of  silage.  Larger  pastures  will  be  required  for  cattle  here  than  in 
the  other  States,  as  greater  acreage  is  required  per  animal. 

FUTURE  METHODS  OF  IMPROVEMENT. 

Briefly  speaking,  the  plan  farmers  should  follow  as  soon  as  ticks 
have  been  eradicated  is  as  follows : 

1.  Get  Bermuda  or  carpet  grass  started  on  all  pastures.  Improve 
the  pastures  further  by  sowing  some  lespedeza  and  bur  clover  on  the 
uplands,  and  some  alsike  clover, white  clover,  and  Paspalum  dilatatum 
on  the  bottom  lands. 

2.  Grow  more  hay  and  other  forage  on  which  to  winter  the  stock; 
or,  if  a  farmer  has  as  many  as  50  or  75  cattle,  erect  a  silo. 

3.  Bring  in  good  bulls  of  the  beef  breeds  to  use  for  grading  up  the 
native  cattle.    Do  not  try  to  raise  pure  breds  to  begin  with. 

4.  If  not  able  to  buy  a  bull  for  individual  use,  form  a  bull  club,  and 
let  each  member  buy  stock  in  the  bull  and  place  him  on  some  central 
farm;  or  let  one  man  buy  the  bull  and  the  others  obligate  themselves 
to  breed  their  cows  to  that  bull. 

5.  Form  a  community  club  or  a  county  live-stock  association,  so 
that  members  may  exchange  bulls  every  two  years  in  order  to  get  the 
maximum  service  from  a  bull  without  breeding  him  to  his  own  off- 
spring. The  members  of  a  club  should  agree  on  what  breed  they 
want  to  use  and  all  get  bulls  of  the  same  breed,  in  order  that  the 
community  may  develop  a  trade  and  make  a  reputation  as  growers 
of  this  breed. 

6.  If  the  bull  is  young,  do  not  let  him  run  with  the  cows,  but  keep 
him  in  a  separate  pasture  and  give  him  some  feed  each  day  so  as  to 
keep  him  growing. 

7.  Do  not  let  a  young  bull  serve  a  cow  but  once.  One  service  is 
often  better  than  a  half  dozen. 

8.  Heifers  of  the  beef  breeds  should  not  drop  calves  until  they  are 
at  least  30  months  of  age,  and  should  be  bred  accordingly. 


EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION. 


9.  Breed  the  cows  so  as  to  calve  during  February.  March,  and 
April. 

10.  Castrate  all  male  calves  at  an  early  age,  either  before  or  at 
weaning  time. 

11.  Wean  the  calves  in  the  fall,  about  the  time  the  cows  are  taken 
from  pasture.  Give  them  plenty  of  good  bright  hay,  silage  if  avail- 
able, and  about  1  pound  of  cotton-seed  meal  per  day  for  the  first 
month  after  taking  them  from  the  cows.  After  that  they  can  be 
wintered  on  the  roughages  produced  on  the  place,  with  a  little  con- 
centrate. Cowpea  or  lespedeza  hay  is  especially  good  for  the  calves, 
although  there  is  no  better  roughage  than  silage. 

12.  The  breeding  stock  may  be  given  the  run  of  the  stalk  fields  until 
the  middle  of  winter  and  then  fed  on  the  roughage  about  the  place 
the  rest  of  the  winter.  As  the  cowts  will  be  carrying  calves,  they 
should  not  be  permited  to  get  poor,  but  should  be  kept  in  a  thrifty 
condition. 

13.  If  possible,  dip  all  of  the  stock  each  spring  and  fall  to  keep 
them  free  of  lice  and  to  put  their  skin  in  good  condition. 

14.  Farmers  who  have  a  number  of  cattle  will  usually  have  to  let 
the  bull  run  in  the  pasture  with  the  cowrs.  If  this  is  the  case,  do 
not  put  him  with  them  before  May  15  or  June  1,  and  take  him  away 
the  1st  of  September.  By  doing  this  the  calves  will  be  dropped 
in  the  early  spring  months.  Owners  of  large  herds  of  cattle  should 
wdierever  practicable  keep  the  steers  in  a  separate  pasture  from  the 
breeding  stock,  and  the  bull  may  be  turned  in  writh  them  during  the 
season  when  he  is  not  with  the  cows. 

15.  Never  keep  a  grade  bull  for  a  sire  if  a  purebred  one  can  be 
secured. 

The  natural  sequence  to  the  formation  of  community  clubs  for 
breeding  and  raising  cattle  will  be  the  cooperative  shipping  to  such 
markets  as  showT  the  greatest  demand  for  the  class  of  cattle  to  be  sold. 
In  counties  where  the  farmers  are  largely,  raising  one  breed  of  cattle 
it  is  not  hard  to  induce  buyers  to  come,  provided  there  is  consider- 
able stock  for  sale.  One  county  might  make  a  specialty  of  raising 
cattle  for  stocker  and  feeder  purposes,  wThile  another  might  finish 
the  cattle  in  the  feed  lots  if  conditions  for  this  are  favorable.  The 
quality  of  cattle  should  improve  constantly,  and  if  it  does  the  prices 
paid  for  them  will  also  increase. 

INTERVIEWS  WITH  CATTLEMEN  AND  FARMERS. 

To  ascertain  just  what  effect  tick  eradication  was  having  upon  the 
cattle  industry  of  certain  sections  of  the  South,  a  trip  wras  made  by 
three  representatives  of  the  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry  through 
Tennessee,  Mississippi,  and  Georgia,  visiting  farms  in  counties  which 
had  been  freed  of  the  ticks,  others  where  the  work  was  in  progress, 


8  EFFECTS    OF     IT*   K    ERADICATION. 

and  still  other  counties  where  ticks  were  present  in  all  pastures  and 
where  no  effort  had  been  made  to  get  rid  of  them.  The  cattle  were 
inspected  and  farmers,  bankers,  cattle  buyers,  and  butchers  were 
interviewed  to  see  just  how  they  regarded  the  work. 

The  first  county  visited  was  Madison  County,  Tenn.,  in  which  is 
located  the  TTest  Tennessee  Experiment  Station.  The  experiment 
station  is  about  1-J  miles  from  Jackson.  The  land  has  been  improved 
by  growing  leguminous  crops  and  maintaining  a  herd  of  cattle  for 
milking  purposes,  putting  the  manure  back  on  the  farm.  The  clovers, 
vetch,  alfalfa,  and  various  other  forage  crops  were  growing  luxu- 
riantly. The  farm  had  been  freed  of  ticks  for  some  time  and  an 
excellent  herd  of  Holstein  cattle  were  seen,  some  of  which  were 
making  wonderful  milk  records. 

Mr.  S.  A.  Eoberts,  the  superintendent  of  the  farm,  made  the  follow- 
ing statement : 

The  cattle  industry  in  lliose  counties  of  western  Tennessee  which  have  heen 
freed  of  ticks  was  never  in  a  more  prosperous  condition  than  at  the  present 
time.  More  interest  has  been  taken  by  the  farmers  since  they  have  learned 
that  they  can  bring  in  cattle  from  above  the  quarantine  line  without  danger 
of  loss  from  Texas  fever.  A  number  of  good  beef  animals  have  been  brought 
into  the  county  for  breeding  purposes  during  the  past  year.  Much  interest 
is  being  taken  in  better  dairy  animals,  too,  and  the  West  Tennessee  Experiment 
Station  can  not  fill  the  orders  received  for  Holstein  breeding  stock.  Many 
beef  cattle  are  fed  in  the  county  and  shipped  to  the  St.  Louis  or  Memphis 
market.  This  is  strictly  a  livestock  county,  as  all  kinds  of  clovers  and  other 
forage  crops  do  well  and  can  be  produced  very  cheaply. 

Mr.  J.  J.  Moffitt,  who  is  a  large  cattle  buyer  and  shipper  of  Jack- 
son, Tenn.,  was  next  interviewed.  Mr.  Moffitt  expressed  his  views 
about  the  tick  eradication  work  in  this  way  : 

There  was  a  great  deal  of  opposition  to  the  work  at  first,  but  now  that  our 
county  has  no  ticks,  the  people  realize  the  advantages  of  the  work,  aud  we 
would  not  go  back  to  the  old  conditions  for  any  amount  of  money.  The  greatest 
benefits  have  come  from  improving  the  quality  of  the  cattle  by  bringing  in  pure- 
bred stock  from  above  the  line.  About  500  head  of  cattle  were  fed  in  the  county 
last  winter.  During  the  past  year  over  .$50,000  worth  of  cattle  have  been  sold, 
and  they  brought  1  cent  a  pound  more  when  placed  in  the  free  pens  at  the 
market  than  if  they  had  been  sold  from  the  quarantine  pens.  Cattle  have 
brought  good  prices  and  we  have  received  great  benefits  from  the  eradication 
of  the  tick.  As  the  ticks  are  eradicated  from  all  the  other  counties  about  litre 
the  good  results  will  increase,  because  of  the  increased  territory  in  which  the 
cattle  buyer  can  secure  stock  to  ship. 

Mr.  E.  A.  Moffitt,  of  Jackson,  Tenn.,  made  the  following  state- 
ment: 

I  handle  from  2,000  to  3,000  cattle  a  year,  some  of  which  I  sell  locally,  and 
ship  the  resl  to  market.  I  am  heartily  in  favor  of  tick-eradication  work.  The 
people  in  tick-infested  counties  have  no  idea  how  much  money  they  are  losing 
by  the  ticks,  and  they  will  never  know  until  they  have  freed  their  premises  and 


EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION.  9 

seen  the  difference  It  will  make  in  their  cattle.  The  cattle  thai  go  Into  the  free 
or  native  pens  at  the  market  bring  from  one-fourth  to  one-half  cent  a  pound 

more  than  if  they  were  sold  in  the  quarantine  pens.  Recently  I  shipped  some 
cattle  from  this  county  and  some  similar  cattle  from  a  ticky  county  to  the  same 
market.  The  cattle  that  went  from  this  county  into  the  native  pens  sold  for 
40  cents  more  per  hundred  pounds  than  did  the  quarantine  cattle,  because  the 
tick-free  cattle  could  be  sent  out  into  the  country  for  stockers,  whereas  the  ticky 
cattle  had  to  be  sold  as  canners  for  immediate  slaughter.  Another  bunch  I  sold 
in  the  quarantine  pens  brought  at  least  half  a  cent  less  per  pound  than  they 
would  if  I  could  have  sold  them  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  fence.  Another 
reason  the  quarantine  cattle  bring  less  is  because  there  is  no  competition  between 
the  small  butchers  and  the  packers  for  these  cattle.  They  must  be  slaughtered 
at  once,  and  the  small  butcher  can  not  use  a  carload  at  one  time,  whereas  he  can 
buy  a  car  of  native  cattle  and  put  them  in  the  feed  lot  or  on  pasture  and 
slaughter  them  just  as  he  needs  them. 

The  cattle  here  at  home  have  increased  in  value  at  least  a  half  a  cent  a  pound 
since  the  county  was  pronounced  free  of  ticks,  for  the  local  butchers  had  to 
meet  the  advance  in  price  which  was  paid  at  the  market  or  lose  the  cattle. 
Cattle  can  now  be  bought  in  Hardeman  County,  Tenn.,  at  ;U  to  ;'>;?  cents  a  pound 
that  would  bring  me  5  cents  a  pound  here  if  I  could  ship  them  in.  I  could  use 
400  head  of  Hardeman  County  cattle  right  now  at  their  prices  if  I  could  ship 
them  here.1  After  people  once  see  the  advantages  of  being  rid  of  ticks  they 
will  be  careful  never  to  let  ticky  cattle  come  on  their  place  again.  The  cattle 
in  this  county  are  improving  in  size  and  quality,  because  breeders  are  now 
bringing  in  good  breeding  cattle  without  the  fear  of  losing  them  from  Texas 
fever. 

Mr.  J.  D.  Mason,  of  Jackson,  a  large  buyer  of  cattle,  was  also  in- 
terviewed, with  the  result  that  some  surprising  figures  on  the  losses 
of  cattle  near  Jackson  were  brought  to  light.    He  is  quoted  as  follows  : 

The  opposition  to  the  tick  eradication  work  is  due  to  ignorance  alone — igno- 
rance of  the  damage  done  by  the  tick,  of  its  life  history,  etc.  I  lost  several 
thousand  dollars'  worth  of  cattle  myself  before  I  was  convinced  that  the 
trouble  was  the  tick.  Before  this  county  was  cleared  of  the  tick  the  people  of 
the  city  of  Jackson  and  the  surrounding  territory  lost  $5,000  to  $S.000  worth  of 
cattle  every  year.  The  cause  was  not  then  known.  These  cattle  were  chietly 
milch  cows  that  were  kept  in  town  and  sent  to  surrounding  pastures  which 
were  ticky  in  the  summer.  Since  the  ticks  were  eradicated  the  loss  has  been 
practically  nothing,  being  less  than  $100  a  year. 

Eradication  is  a  great  boon  to  the  cattle  buyer  who  formerly  lost  so  many 
cattle  when  buying  odd  bunches  here  and  there  over  the  county.  The  cattle 
would  mix,  and  many  of  them  would  become  ticky  and  die.  Buyers  can  now 
pay  the  farmer  better  prices  for  cattle,  because  the  risk  is  avoided.  In  other 
words,  the  eradication  is  an  insurance  policy  for  the  cattle  buyer. 

The  sentiment  expressed  b}'  farmers  or  cattlemen  is  not  always  the 
same  as  that  of  other  conservative  business  men,  such  as  bankers.  As 
the  attitude  which  the  bankers  take  toward  any  line  of  work  has 
very  material  influence  upon  it,  Mr.  C.  B.  Caldwell,  who  is  cashier 

1  This  statement  was  made  while  a  portion  of  Hardeman  County  was  slill  in  quarantine. 
The  remainder  of  that  county  has  since  been  released  (Sep'.    1.   L913). 

20200°— 1-1 2 


10  EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION. 

of  the  First  National  Bank  of  Jackson.  Term.,  was  next  interviewed. 
He  said : 

I  am  heartily  in  favor  of  tick  eradication  and  believe  it  is  only  a  question  of 
a  few  years  until  the  whole  South  will  be  carrying  on  the  work,  and  soon  after 
tb.it  time  the  whole  country  will  be  free.  Then  we  can  produce  the  cattle 
which  are  so  badly  needed  at  the  present  time. 

I  have  30  head  of  Angus  cattle,  and  can  not  supply  the  orders  I  get  for  breed- 
ing stock.  I  could  sell  10  young  bulls  right  now  if  I  had  them.  All  of  my 
stock  are  sold  as  yearlings,  for  which  I  get  $50  to  $100  each.  It  has  been  10 
years  since  there  have  been  any  ticks  on  my  place,  and  I  wouldn't  have  any 
get  started  there  now  for  a  thousand  dollars.  There  has  never  been  any  money 
si>ent  by  this  county  to  better  advantage  than  that  spent  in  helping  to  eradicate 
the  cattle  tick. 

The  other  men  who  were  approached  on  this  subject  were  of  the 
same  opinion  as  those  quoted  above  concerning  the  value  of  the  work. 
Everyone  seemed  to  realize  that  the  county  was  in  a  position  to  raise 
better  cattle  at  a  greater  profit  than  ever  before.  Some  of  the  men 
who  had  formerly  been  the  bitterest  enemies  of  the  work,  declaring 
that  clearing  a  county  of  cattle  ticks  was  an  impossible  task,  were 
loudest  in  praise  of  the  work  after  it  was  completed. 

From  Madison  County  a  trip  was  made  to  the  Lespedeza  farm,  at 
Hickory  Valley,  Hardeman  County,  Tenn.  Much  of  the  land  passed 
over  was  poor  in  fertility,  due  to  the  treatment  it  had  received  in  the 
past,  but  very  little  of  it  was  soil  which  could  not  be  easily  and 
rapidly  improved  in  fertility  by  the  use  of  legumes  and  live  stock. 
All  of  it  could  be  made  to  grow  excellent  pasture  grasses,  as  was 
shown  at  the  Lespedeza  farm.  This  farm,  which  now  consists  of 
about  16,000  acres,  of  which  2,500  are  in  cultivation,  was  formerly 
an  old  worn-out  cotton  plantation,  so  poor  that  much  of  it  had  been 
abandoned  and  permitted  to  grow  up  in  sedge  grass,  brush,  and 
briers.  Quite  a  little  of  it  was  covered  with  a  natural  growth  of 
timber. 

The  present  manager  wished  to  convert  it  into  a  stock  farm,  but 
there  were  two  great  drawbacks:  (1)  it  was  as  ticky  a  place  as  could 
be  found  anywhere,  and  (2)  it  was  so  poor  that  little  feed  could  be 
raised  at  first,  and  the  pastures  were  very  poor  in  quality.  The  cattle 
on  the  place  were  scrubby,  stunted  animals  weighing  from  500  to  700 
pounds  and  covered  with  ticks. 

A  stock  farm  was  to  be  made,  however,  so  the  first  thing  to  be 
done  was  to  fence  the  entire  place  and  put  double  fences  about  7  feet 
apart  along  the  public  road  so  that  animals  passing  along  the  road 
would  be  unlikely  to  get  inside  the  pastures.  A  dipping  vat  was 
installed,  all  of  the  cattle  on  the  place  were  collected  and  put  into  a 
pasture  near  the  vat.  and  the  gates  to  all  of  the  other  fields  were 
locked.  The  cattle  were  dipped  every  two  weeks  during  the  summer, 
and  in  a  year  the  entire  place  was  free  of  ticks.     The  ticks  were 


EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION 


11 


starved  in  the  unoccupied  pastures  and  killed  by  dipping  the  cattle, 
which  were  kept  in  the  other  pasture.  Since  that  time  not  a  tick  has 
appeared  on  the  entire  property. 

The  problem  of  improving  the  pastures  and  the  soil  was  also 
taken  up.  Lespedeza  seed  was  scattered  over  the  pasture  lands  in 
the  early  spring,  and  a  number  of  small  fields  were  plowed  up  and 
planted  with  mixtures  of  different  kinds  of  seed,  such  as  red  clover, 
alsike  clover,  lespedeza,  fescue  grass,  orchard  grass,  red  top,  and 
blue  grass.  The  cultivated  lands  were  planted  in  corn,  sorghum, 
cowpeas.  soy  beans,  rape,  and  other  forage  crops  for  cattle  and  hogs, 
and  in  the  fall  were  planted  with  various  grains,  including  rye.  oats, 
wheat,  vetch,  etc.  These  fields  were  grazed  during  the  winter  by 
the  stock,  and  in  the  early  spring  permitted  to  grow  up.  and  the 


Fig.  3. — Purebred  Shorthorn  bulls  on  a  Tennessee  farm  free  of  ticks. 

crop  was  then  plowed  under  with  disk  plows  or  deep-tilling  ma- 
chines. Silos  were  built  and  filled  with  silage  made  of  sorghum, 
corn,  and  soy  beans.  Some  of  the  best  Shorthorn  cattle  that  could  be 
bought  in  Kentucky  were  brought  down  and  grazed  on  the  meadows 
during  the  summer,  and  wintered  on  the  farm-grown  feeds  and  some 
cottonseed  meal.  All  of  the  cattle  did  exceedingly  well  from  the 
start,  and  since  that  time  a  herd  has  accumulated  which  ranks  among 
the  best  in  the  United  States.  Some  of  these  cattle  are  shown  in 
figures  3  and  4. 

The  native  cattle  which  were  formerly  on  the  place  were  put  into 
different  pastures  from  the  purebred  cattle,  and  purebred  Shorthorn 
bulls  were  put  with  them.  The  scrub  cows  were  valued  at  $12  to 
$20  a  head,  but  they  produced  some  very  fine  calves  by  the  Short- 


12 


EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION. 


horn  sires.  The  calves  were  taken  away  from  their  dams  in  the 
fall  and  fed  on  farm-grown  feeds.  When  fat  they  weighed  870 
pounds  each  on  the  farm  and  ranged  from  15  to  18  months  of  age. 
The}7  were  shipped  to  the  Chicago  market,  where  they  averaged  800 
pounds  in  weight  and  sold  for  8  cents  a  pound.  Scrub  cows  worth 
about  $17  each  when  bred  to  good  beef  bulls,  therefore,  produced 
calves  which  at  less  than  a  year  and  a  half  old  sold  for  $G4  a  head. 
Those  calves  never  had  a  tick  on  them ;  their  mothers  had  been  kept 
on  good  pastures,  and  they  received  good  treatment  from  the  time 
they  were  born  until  they  were  sold. 

What  has  been  the  result  of  this  kind  of  farming?     There  are 
to-day  on  this  farm  crops  which  five  }Tears  ago  it  would  have  seemed 


FIG.  4. — Some  excellent  Shorthorn  heifers  raised  on  a  Tennessee  farm. 

impossible  to  grow,  a  herd  of  over  200  purebred  Shorthorns,  another 
of  more  than  200  grades  and  native  cows,  good  barns  and  other  farm 
buildings,  beautiful  cottages,  and  some  of  the  finest  meadows  of 
clover  and  grasses  to  be  found  anywhere.  Nine  large  silos,  two  of 
which  have  a  capacity  of  300  tons  each,  are  filled  with  silage  each 
year;  there  are  large  barns  in  which  to  store  the  cowpea  and  other 
kinds  of  hay  produced,  and  several  hundred  good  hogs  and  sheep  arc 
kept  on  the  place.  The  whole  property  is  divided  by  good  fences 
into  numerous  pastures,  fields,  and  paddocks.  The  immense  amount 
of  manure  produced  is  hauled  direct  to  the  fields,  and  this,  together 
witli  the  legumes  planted  and  the  green  crops  which  are  plowed 
under  with  deep-tilling  machines  pulled  by  a  gasoline  "caterpillar" 
tractor,  or  walking  plows  drawn  by  large  Percheron  mares,  is  build- 


EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION.  13 

ing  up  the  soil  to  a  high  state  of  fertility.  Two  large  draft  mares 
replaced  four  medium-sized  mules  at  the  disk  harrows  and  other 
machinery.  Everything  is  done  in  a  progressive,  businesslike  way. 
and  the  farm  stands  out  as  a  shining  mark  of  progress  and  a  good 
example  for  others  to  follow.  While  things  can  not  be  done  on  the 
small  farm  in  the  same  way  as  they  can  on  this  large  one,  neverthe- 
less this  place  is  an  outstanding  example  of  what  may  be  accom- 
plished on  thousands  of  farms  all  over  the  South  with  respect  to 
eradicating  the  cattle  tick,  improving  the  pastures,  building  up  the 
soil,  growing  plenty  of  forage  crops,  raising  good  stock,  and  having 
farm  buildings  and  a  home  of  which  one  may  be  proud. 

The  manager,  Mr.  Dan  S.  Combs,  made  the  following  statement : 

Tennessee  can  produce  just  as  good  cattle  or  other  forms  of  live  stock  as  any 
State  if  the  people  will  first  get  rid  of  the  ticks,  improve  their  pastures,  build  up 
their  soils,  and  use  the  same  care  in  raising  their  stock  as  do  the  farmers  in 
other  sections  of  the  country  where  good  cattle  are  produced. 

We  have  a  magnificent  herd  of  cattle,  which  will  compare  well  with  any 
herd,  and  we  can  produce  them  cheaper  here  than  can  be  done  in  the  North. 
There  is  no  trouble  in  selling  our  breeding  stock  at  good  prices,  and  many  of 
the  young  bulls  are  going  into  those  counties  in  Mississippi  and  Alabama  where 
tick  eradication  work  is  being  conducted. 

There  is  a  great  opportunity  in  the  South  for  the  stockman  and  farmer,  and 
the  number  of  good  bulls  which  are  sold  in  counties  where  eradication  work 
is  being  carried  on  are  bound  to  leave  their  impression  on  the  cattle  of  those 
sections. 

A  visit  was  made  to  the  farm  of  Mr.  J.  M.  Aldrich.  of  Michigan 
City,  Benton  County,  Miss.    The  story  of  his  work  is  given  here : 

My  place  consists  of  1.400  acres  of  land,  which  was  formerly  an  old.  worn-out 
cotton  plantation.  The  land  was  so  poor  when  I  bought  it  that  but  two  bales 
of  cotton  and  40  bushels  of  corn  were  produced  on  it  the  previous  year,  the 
remainder  of  the  land  being  considered  too  poor  to  cultivate.  This  place  was 
free  of  ticks  until  about  10  or  12  years  ago.  I  was  a  cattle  buyer  and  brought 
in  cattle  from  various  counties  surrounding  Benton,  and,  finally,  shipped  in 
some  cattle  from  central  Mississippi.  These  cattle  were  covered  with  ticks, 
but  nothing  was  thought  of  it.  In  about  two  or  three  weeks  some  of  my  cattle 
began  dying  very  suddenly,  three  being  found  dead  near  the  center  of  the 
pasture  one  morning.  At  first  I  thought  someone  had  given  them  poison. 
Some  of  the  sick  ones  were  brought  to  the  barn,  fed  and  doctored,  but  most  of 
those  which  became  sick  died.  I  noticed  also  that  none  of  the  cattle  which 
I  shipped  in  died,  but  they  did  well  on  pasture,  while  many  of  the  cattle  already 
on  the  place  got  sick.  My  loss  was  heavy.  Soon  after  this  I  heard  that  ticks 
gave  cattle  Texas  fever,  and  that  the  symptoms  were  practically  the  same  as 
those  from  which  my  cattle  died.  When  I  learned  the  life  history  of  the  tick 
and  began  reading  about  Texas  or  splenetic  fever,  I  knew  that  the  ticks  had 
caused  the  damage.  I  remembered,  too,  that  I  had  found  ticks  on  most  of 
the  cows  which  died,  and  as  the  cattle  from  central  Mississippi  had  been  ac- 
customed to  the  ticks  all  of  the  time,  that  accounted  for  none  of  them  dying. 

I  began  hand-greasing  my  cattle.  Every  time  they  would  show  many  ticks 
I  would  have  them  rounded  up  and  grease  them.  I  used  every  kind  of  grease 
or  solution  I  heard  of,  but  this  method  was  very  unsatisfactory,  as  grease  could 


14 


EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION. 


not  be  put  on  all  of  the  ticks,  for  some  parts  of  the  cattle  would  be  skipped 
over  in  the  hand  greasing.  For  four  years  I  did  this,  and  it  was  both  hard  and 
expensive  work.  At  the  suggestion  of  a  tick  inspector  of  the  Bureau  of  Animal 
Industry  who  visited  our  county  I  built  a  dipping  vat,  the  first  one  in  the 
State  of  Mississippi.  After  dipping  was  regularly  taken  up  it  did  not  take 
long  to  free  my  cattle  of  ticks. 

When  tick  eradication  was  first  started  in  this  county  there  was  much  oppo- 
sition to  it,  due  to  ignorance  of  the  work  and  all  kinds  of  misrepresentations 
made  by  people  opposing  it ;  but  as  the  work  progressed  this  sentiment  died  out. 
Since  the  county  has  been  released  from  quarantine  I  do  not  believe  a  man 
could  be  found  who  will  say  that  the  work  was  not  of  great  benefit  to  everyone. 


Fig.  5. — A  Hereford  bull  in  Mississippi,  McCray  Fairfax,  361803,  grand  champion  Here- 
ford bull  at  the  National  Feeders  and  Breeders'  Show,  Fort  Worth,  1913.     This  is  the 
type  of  bull  which  should  be  used  in  breeding  up  the  native  southern  cattle.      (Cour- 
tesy of  La  Vernet  Farm.) 


My  herd  of  cattle  contains  about  50  registered  Angus,  the  remainder  being 
grades  and  natives.  Last  fall  I  took  my  grade  calves  from  their  dams,  started 
them  on  a  ration  of  corn  silage  and  cottonseed  meal,  and  fed  them  for  120 
days,  in  the  barn.  They  made  good  gains  for  the  whole  period,  and  sold  for 
11  cents  a  pound  this  spring.  Accurate  records  were  kept  of  all  the  feeding, 
and  I  made  about  $15  profit  on  each  of  them.  Hereafter  I  will  fatten  some 
cattle  for  the  market  each  year,  and  expect  them  to  do  even  better  than  they  did 
this  year. 

I  have  no  trouble  at  all  in  selling  all  of  my  purebred  yearlings  at  good  prices 
for  breeding  purposes.  In  fact  I  have  no  bulls  on  hand  that  are  for  sale  at  the 
present  time.  The  cattle  industry  of  this  county  is  now  in  the  most  prosperous 
condition  that  it  has  ever  experienced.  Many  cattle  shippers  who  formerly 
sent  most  of  their  cattle  to  the  New  Orleans  market  are  now  shipping  to  St. 
Louis,  because  their  cattle  go  in  the  native  pens  and  bring  better  prices  than 


EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION.  15 

if  sold  as  quarantine  cattle.  This  increase  In  value  of  the  cattle  sold  on  the 
markets  should  be  inducement  enough  to  make  any  people  exterminate  the  tick 
without  considering  the  many  other  benefits  which  accrue  from  such  work. 

Hinds  County,  Miss.,  where  the  people  have  made  such  progress  in 
exterminating  the  tick  that  the  county  has  been  released  from  quaran- 
tine, was  visited.  The  farm  of  W.  J.  Davis  &  Co.  was  first  inspected. 
On  this  farm  are  to  be  found  some  fine  specimens  of  the  Hereford 
breed  of  cattle.  There  is  a  large  herd  of  them,  and  all  are  in  excellent 
condition.  The  breeding  cows  on  pasture  were  in  superb  condition 
for  grass  cattle  and  showed  they  had  received  good  treatment  during 
the  winter  months.  The  young  stock  looked  exceedingly  well  and 
were  very  growthy  and  vigorous,  in  great  contrast  with  the  calves 
usually  found  in  the  State. 

In  an  interview  with  Mr.  Davis  he  made  the  following  statement: 

There  is  no  doubt  about  the  ill  effect  which  ticks  have  on  all  cattle  in  general 
and  young  growing  stock  in  particular,  but  one  of  the  hardest  questions  we  ever 
had  to  decide  was  whether  or  not  to  eradicate  all  ticks  absolutely  from  our 
farm,  or  to  try  to  keep  them  in  check,  but  still  have  enough  so  that  all  of  our 
cattle  would  get  some  upon  them  and  thus  be  accustomed  to  them.  Our  situa- 
tion was  a  peculiar  one,  for  wre  are  not  raising  cattle  for  beef,  but  raising  pure- 
bred stock  to  sell  to  southern  farmers  for  breeding  purposes.  The  amount  of 
breeding  stock  we  have  sold  in  the  North  is  small  and  possibly  never'  will  be 
large,  for  we  want  to  cater  entirely  to  the  southern  trade,  and  it  was  a  ques- 
tion whether  we  would  hold  this  trade  if  we  got  rid  of  all  ticks  and  could  not 
sell  our  cattle  to  men  who  lived  in  tick-infested  districts.  We  would  then  be 
in  the  same  position  as  the  northern  breeder  in  regard  to  selling  stock  in  the 
South.  At  first  we  thought  it  better  to  keep  our  premises  lightly  infested,  so 
that  we  could  sell  breeding  stock  to  go  into  quarantine  territory,  and  dip  under 
Federal  inspection  those  cattle  which  we  wished  to  ship  into  free  territory. 

After  studying  the  question  seriously,  however,  from  every  possible  angle,  we 
became  convinced  that  with  the  progress  Mississippi  was  making  in  tick-eradi- 
cation work  it  would  not  be  long  until  most  of  the  State  was  free  from  ticks, 
and  that  the  work  would  evidently  make  great  progress  in  neighboring  States; 
also  that  in  the  counties  which  exterminate  the  tick  are  the  farmers  who  are 
first  going  to  buy  the  largest  number  of  good  bulls,  for  these  counties  will 
very  probably  develop  quickly  into  the  best  live-stock  counties  of  the  State. 

Immediately  we  began  regularly  dipping  all  animals  and  soon  cleaned  up  the 
entire  place.  Now  we  are  glad  of  it,  for  not  only  are  wre  relieved  from  the 
losses  of  animals  and  the  stunting  of  others  from  tick  fever  but  we  see  that 
our  surmise  was  right  about  the  men  who  would  purchase  our  surplus  stock. 
All  farmers  who  are  progressive  enough  to  desire  to  raise  good  cattle  or  regis- 
tered cattle  will  interest  themselves  in  tick  eradication  in  order  that  they  may 
raise  their  stock  more  profitably. 

The  next  farm  visited  was  that  of  Mr.  A.  A.  Morson,  of  Jackson, 
Miss.  Mr.  Morson  keeps  a  good  herd  of  Jersey  cattle,  milking  from 
40  to  50  cows  at  all  times  of  the  year.  He  buys  the  best  Jersey  bull 
he  can  find  for  the  head  of  his  herd,  for  he  recognizes  the  importance 
of  the  sire  in  raising  calves  for  future  use.  He  was  two  years  in  get- 
ting his  farm  completely  free  of  ticks,  but  he  did  not  get  started  to 


16 


EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION. 


dipping  until  late  the  first  year,  and  then  did  not  dip  regularly. 
During  this  summer  he  lost  several  good  calves  from  tick  fever,  and 
after  that  he  dipped  constantly  until  all  of  the  ticks  on  the  place 
were  exterminated.  He  says  the  milk  flow  of  his  herd  has  increased 
and  they  are  in  better  condition  than  ever  before  at  this  time  of  the 
year. 

Hinds  County  has  been  one  of  the  many  Mississippi  counties  which 
have  made  enviable  records  in  tick  eradication.  After  the  people  be- 
came convinced  it  was  a  good  thing  the  dipping  was  taken  up  by  all 
stock  owners  and  prosecuted  so  regularly  that  premises  were  rapidly 
cleaned  up. 


Fig.  6. — The  type  of  Hereford  cows  which  should  be  raised  in  greater  numbers  throughout 
the  south.      (From  a  Mississippi  herd.) 

From  Hinds  County  a  trip  was  made  into  Copiah  County,  which 
had  just  begun  the  fight  on  the  cattle  tick.  This  county  was  one  in 
which  the  cotton  industry  was  almost  destroyed  b}^  the  boll  weevil,  but 
the  farmers  retained  their  labor  and  began  diversified  farming  and 
t  nicking  with  such  good  results  that  they  are  to-day  in  better  shape 
financially  than  they  have  been  for  10  years.  The  cattle  industry 
had  never  received  much  encouragement  in  this  county,  and  as  a  re- 
sult the  cattle,  although  found  in  goodly  numbers,  were  the  native 
scrub  stock  that  is  still  so  common  in  some  parts  of  the  South.  They 
looked  far  more  scrubby  and  worthless  after  seeing  such  magnificent 
beef  cattle  on  the  farms  previously  visited.  These  people  are  aware 
of  the  progress  made  in  adjoining  counties  and  have  determined  to 
build  up  this  valuable  industry.  As  a  result  a  campaign  is  being 
made  against  the  tick  and  for  good  cattle. 


EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION. 


17 


The  farm  of  Mr.  Ben  Ramsey,  near  Hazelhurst,  was  visited  and  260 
native  tick-infested  cattle  were  inspected.  In  this  herd  were  yearlings 
weighing  less  than  300  pounds  and  '2  and  3  year  old  cattle  weighing 
about  500  pounds.  There  were  native  cows  weighing  TOO  to  7.50 
pounds,  however,  which,  if  bred  to  a  purebred  beef  bull,  would  pro- 
duce good  calves.    Mr.  Ramsey  said  : 

Last  year  I  branded  $GS,000  worth  of  cattle  and  nearly  all  of  them  were  just 
such  scrubs  as  you  see  here,  but  there  were  a  few  good  grades  among  the  young 
stock.  Since  the  boll  weevil  put  the  cotton  farmer  so  nearly  out  of  business 
here  the  number  of  cattle  on  the  farms  has  increased  rapidly.  Good  bulls  are 
being  brought  in,  and  as  soon  as  the  tick  is  exterminated  the  cattle  industry  in 
this  county  is  going  to  come  to  the  front. 


Fig.  7. 


-The  type  of  cattle  usually  found  throughout  those  sections  of  the  South  where 
ticks  still  prevail.      (Taken  in  Copiah  County,  Miss.) 


Other  farmers  expressed  similar  views.  Some  stated  that  about 
2J  acres  was  allowed  per  cow  for  summer  grazing,  and  that  this 
amount  of  land  furnished  plenty  of  grass.  By  planting  other  grasses 
and  clovers  on  these  lands  they  could  be  made  to  produce  three  times 
as  much  grass  and  hence  graze  three  times  as  many  cattle. 

From  Copiah  County  a  trip  was  made  to  Adams  County,  and  thou- 
sands of  acres  of  good  pasture  lands  were  passed  over,  a  large  per- 
centage of  which  was  still  idle.  However,  newT  fences  could  be  seen 
quite  frequently,  which  indicated  that  more  of  this  land  than  for- 
merly was  being  devoted  to  grazing. 


18  EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION. 

Adams  County  was  one  of  the  pioneer  counties  of  Mississippi  in 
tick  eradication.  The  county  is  composed  of  hill  lands  and  large 
areas  of  lowlands  adjacent  to  creeks  or  the  river,  which  furnish  ex- 
cellent pastures  for  live  stock.  This  county  was  damaged  by  the  boll 
weevil  to  a  greater  extent  than  any  other  county  in  Mississippi. 
When  the  weevils  appeared  in  large  numbers  the  farmers  became  de- 
moralized and  immediately  discontinued  the  credit  system  in  supply- 
ing the  negro  labor.  The  result  was  that  most  of  the  laborers  left  the 
county  for  the  delta  lands  north  of  there  or  the  rice  fields  of  Arkansas. 
The  cotton  yield  dropped  from  25,000  bales  to  about  1.100.  The  land 
was  permitted  to  lie  idle.  In  1912,  however,  the  overflow  of  the  im- 
mense Louisiana  territory  by  the  Mississippi  River  forced  the  plant- 
ers to  ship  thousands  of  cattle  to  Natchez  to  be  pastured  until  after 
the  water  went  down.  These  cattle  came  in  by  boatloads,  covered 
with  ticks  and  so  poor  they  could  hardly  be  driven  to  the  pastures. 
All  of  them  were  dipped  on  arrival  and  every  two  weeks  thereafter 
while  they  were  in  Adams  County.  All  were  dipped  before  going 
back  to  Louisiana,  so  they  were  free  of  ticks  when  they  arrived  on 
the  Louisiana  plantations.  The  overflow  had  drowned  the  ticks  on 
these  plantations,  as  most  of  the  land  was  submerged  from  1  to  T 
weeks.  The  result  was  that  the  cattle  fattened  to  a  greater  extent 
that  fall  and  passed  through  the  winter  in  better  shape  than  can  be 
remembered  by  the  oldest  inhabitants.  In  commenting  on  this,  Mr. 
R.  L.  Parker,  of  Xatchez,  Miss.,  a  large  buyer  of  cattle,  made  the  fol- 
lowing statements  : 

In  the  spring  of  1912  cattle  were  brought  into  Natchez  by  the  thousands  from 
the  overflowed  districts  of  Louisiana.  These  cattle  were  so  poor  and  weak  that 
they  sold  very  cheap,  some  for  little  over  2  cents  a  pound,  or  some  whole  herds 
of  cattle  for  $10  around,  because  the  loss  from  them  would  be  heavy,  due  to 
their  emaciated  condition.  Many  were  so  weak  that  they  gave  out  and  died  in 
the  road  while  being  taken  to  pasture.  All  were  dipped  on  arrival  and  con- 
tinuously during  the  time  they  remained  in  Adams  County,  and  those  which 
were  returned  to  Louisiana  were  free  of  ticks.  The  plantations  were  freed  of 
ticks  because  of  the  long  inundation.  The  result  was  that  the  cattle  fattened 
rapidly  and  wintered  in  fine  shape. 

This  spring  (April.  1913)  when  these  same  cattle  were  brought  out  of  the  low- 
hinds  because  of  the  overflow  they  arrived  in  Xatchez  fatter  than  any  cattle  I 
had  ever  seen  come  out  of  Tensas  or  Concordia  Parishes  at  any  time  of  the  year. 
They  looked  so  well  that  few  of  the  owners  would  sell,  and  even  then  only  at 
prices  ranging  from  5  cents  a  pound  upward.  Some  of  these  native  cows  I 
purchased  at  $50  a  head  for  beef.  This  difference  in  price  for  the  two  years 
1912  and  1913  was  due  to  the  condition  of  the  cattle,  and  the  difference  in  the 
condition  was  due  almost  entirely  to  the  absence  of  ticks  from  the  pastures, 
although  the  mild  winter  of  course  had  some  influence. 

If  the  cattlemen  in  the  alluvial  lands  of  Mississippi  and  Louisiana  will  get 
rid  of  the  ticks,  there  is  no  section  of  the  country  which  can  grow  cattle  cheaper 
or  with  greater  profit.     The  past  two  seasons  have  demonstrated  most  clearly 


EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION. 


19 


to  all  of  the  people  in  this  overflowed  area  how  much  better  cattle  will  do 
when  kept  free  of  the  ticks.  If  the  counties  or  parishes  in  this  section  will 
appropriate  some  money  for  the  eradication  of  ticks  in  these  areas,  the  work 
can  be  accomplished  at  a  very  small  cost,  as  few  of  the  plantations  have  ticks 
on  them,  because  of  the  overflow  this  year.     Now  is  the  time  for  the  work. 

A  visit  was  made  to  the  plantation  of  Messrs.  Suzette  &  Minor  near 
Xatchez,  and  a  fine  herd  of  about  300  Devon  cattle  were  inspected. 
This  herd  has  been  tick-free  for  almost  two  years  except  for  a  few 
months  in  1912  when  a  portion  of  the  premises  became  reinfected  and 
a  number  of  fine  calves  were  lost  from  Texas  fever. 

All  of  the  cattle  were  in  good  condition  for  the  time  of  the  year, 
and  a  beautiful  herd  of  small  calves  was  seen.     The  breeding  cows 


Fig.  8. — Part  of  a  herd  of  300  purebred  Devon  cows  on  a  tick-free  pasture  in  Mississippi. 

were  fat,  and  many  of  them  had  large  udders,  showing  that  they  gave 
a  heavy  yield  of  milk,  besides  making  good  beef  animals. 

Mr.  Minor  said  his  cattle  had  kept  in  far  better  flesh  the  year 
through,  and  the  young  stock  grew  much  faster  since  the  cattle  had 
been  kept  free  of  ticks.  Also,  that  a  man  could  not  believe  how  much 
fatter  cattle  would  become  if  kept  free  from  ticks,  unless  he  actually 
saw  a  herd  of  cattle  before  and  after  being  cleaned  of  ticks.  The 
demand  for  breeding  stock  has  been  excellent,  and  they  had  sold 
everything  they  had  to  offer  this  year. 

A  herd  of  Bed  Polled  cattle  from  Louisana,  which  belonged  to  Mr. 
A.  G.  Campbell,  a  banker  of  Xatchez,  was  also  inspected.     These  cat- 


20  EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION. 

tie  were  in  line  condition  and  had  been  freed  of  ticks  for  over  a  year. 
The  following  statements  were  made  by  Mr.  Campbell: 

My  cattle  have  never  seemed  to  thrive  better  or  fatten  more  easily  than 
they  have  since  they  were  cleaned  of  the  cattle  ticks.  They  wintered  in  tine 
shape  and  were  fat  for  grass  cattle  by  the  1st  of  May.  I  know  of  no  one  thing 
which  would  help  our  fanners  more  than  freeing  the  whole  South  of  this  pest, 
which  has  done  so  much  to  retard  the  cattle  industry.  This  is  a  good  stock 
country,  and  the  farmers  who  raise  good  cattle  should  make  money  by  it. 

The  farm  of  W.  S.  Lovell,  at  Palmyra,  Miss.,  was  not  visited  but 
the  conditions  on  this  farm  are  familiar  in  every  way  to  the  author  of 
this  bulletin.  Mr.  Lovell  has  done  much  to  encourage  the  growing 
of  more  and  better  live  stock  in  Mississippi.  In  1911  a  herd  of  steers 
raised  and  fed  by  him  and  shipped  to  the  St.  Louis  market  sold  for 
the  highest  price  ever  paid  for  Mississippi  cattle  on  that  market  up 
to  that  time.  Last  year  there  were  on  this  farm  TOO  head  of  pure- 
bred and  high-grade  Hereford  cattle  which  had  never  been  subjected 
to  the  ravages  of  the  cattle  tick. 

Mr.  Lovell  wrote  as  follows  under  date  of  June  ID,  1913 : 

Replying  to  your  recent  inquiry,  will  say  that,  as  you  know,  owing  to  fre- 
quent overflows,  my  place  at  Palmyra,  Miss.,  is  free  from  cattle  ticks.  The 
advantage  of  this  fact  is  clearly  shown  in  the  cattle  that  I  am  raising  in  com- 
parison with  those  raised  within  a  few  miles,  where  the  pastures  are  tick 
infested. 

There  is  one  disadvantage  in  being  free  of  ticks  and  surrounded  largely  by 
tick-infested  territory.  Last  year  I  shipped  about  700  head  of  cattle  to  Natchez, 
in  Adams  County,  which  was  then  tick  free.  Many  thousand  head  of  cattle 
were  brought  into  Adams  County  from  tick-infested  districts  during  the  over- 
flow and  broke  through  the  fences  holding  my  cattle.  As  a  result  I  lost  28 
head  from  tick  fever,  and  those  that  did  recover  were  so  weak  that  when  they 
were  taken  back  to  the  plantation  whenever  they  got  in  a  bog  they  died  because 
they  didn't  have  strength  enough  to  pull  themselves  out.  I  can  certainly  say 
without  hesitation  that  any  man  is  a  fool  to  raise  cattle  with  ticks  on  them 
when  he  can  rid  them  of  the  ticks  by  dipping. 

The  best  way  to  convert  an  antitick-eradication  advocate  is  to  let  him  dip 
his  cattle  for  six  months  and  see  the  improvement  in  them.  Let  him  weigh 
them  before  he  starts  dipping  and  again  when  they  are  free  of  ticks. 

There  wTere  a  few  farms  in  Adams  County  which  were  reinfested 
witli  ticks  from  cattle  brought  in  from  the  overflowed  districts.  All 
of  the  cattle  were  dipped  on  arrival,  but  evidently  there  were  some 
mature  ticks  which  the  single  dipping  did  not  kill.  These  premises 
are  being  held  under  quarantine  and  the  cattle  dipped  regularly 
until  they  are  absolutely  free  once  more. 

Mississippi  has  made  some  wonderful  strides  in  the  eradication 
of  the  cattle  tick,  and  the  people  of  that  State  are  to  be  congratu- 
lated on  the  work. 

The  stockyards  and  packing  houses  at  Atlanta.  Ga..  were  next 
visited.    At  the  present  time  the  stockyards  at  Atlanta  do  not  handle 


EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION.  21 

great  numbers  of  cattle,  but  the  city  of  Atlanta  is  so  situated  that 
some  day  a  good  market  may  be  developed  there.  It  would  he  a 
central  point  to  which  the  farmers  of  Florida,  Georgia.  Alabama. 
Tennessee,  and  North  and  South  Carolina  could  ship  their  cattle. 

There  is  no  one  who  is  more  capable  of  telling  whether  the  cattle 
of  a  State  are  improving  than  the  commission  men  or  the  packers 
at  the  market  where  those  cattle  are  sold.  They  see  the  stock  daily 
for  }Tears,  and  the  buyer  for  a  packing  house  has  to  make  a  study  of 
the  cattle  which  he  purchases  in  order  to  know  what  he  can  pay  for 
stock.  His  knowledge  extends  from  the  animals  as  they  stand  in 
the  yards  until  the  carcasses  are  weighed  in  the  coolers.  Eecogniz- 
ing  these  facts,  several  men  representing  commission  men,  packers, 
or  butchers  were  interviewed. 

Mr.  F.  A.  Suttles,  of  the  firm  of  A.  L.  Suttles  &  Co.,  commission 
men  and  wholesale  butchers,  made  the  following  declaration : 

Most  of  the  cattle  which  are  sold  on  this  market  come  from  Georgia,  South 
Carolina,  Tennessee,  and  North  Carolina.  A  large  percentage  of  the  cattle 
coming  from  the  latter  two  States  are  fed  cattle,  but  some  fed  stock  comes 
from  central  and  south  Georgia.  Mr.  W.  P.  White  bought  250  head  of  cattle 
of  Mr.  Comer,  whose  farm  is  near  Savannah,  Ga.,  and  shipped  part  of  them 
to  this  market.  These  cattle  were  sold  for  7  cents  a  pound  on  the  farm.  One 
car  of  this  lot  which  was  shipped  to  this  market  contained  15  grade  beef  calves 
ranging  from  16  to  18  months  old  and  weighing  an  average  of  631  pounds. 
They  sold  for  $7.37^  per  hundredweight,  or  $16.75  per  head,  which  is  not  a  bad 
price  for  yearlings. 

Georgia  has  just  as  good  land  for  raising  cattle  as  Alabama.  Tennessee,  or 
Mississippi,  if  the  farmers  would  only  plant  some  grasses  upon  it.  The  tick 
is  undoubtedly  a  great  drawback  to  the  cattle  business,  and  cattle  do  much 
better  where  they  are  not  bothered  by  this  pest. 

In  an  interview  with  Mr,  T.  A.  Plaster,  cattle  buyer  for  the  White 
Provision  Co.,  of  Atlanta,  he  expressed  his  views  regarding  the 
cattle  situation  thus: 

Better  cattle  will  naturally  come  in  the  wake  of  tick  eradication.  The 
cattle  that  are  here  will  improve  in  quality  and  better  cattle  will  be  brought  in 
for  breeding  purposes.  The  effects  of  this  improved  blood  will  show  up  within 
a  few  years  to  a  considerable  extent.  The  quality  of  the  cattle  in  Georgia 
is  improving  some,  and  more  cattle  are  fed  than  formerly.  We  get  some  good 
fat  cattle  from  central  and  southern  Georgia  during  the  winter  and  spring 
months,  but  the  people  of  north  Georgia  do  not  furnish  many  cattle.  Good  cattle 
could  be  raised  all  over  the  State  if  the  farmers  would  try.  We  expect  the 
cattle  business  to  improve  right  along.  The  State  law  which  requires  all 
cattle  shippers  to  have  their  cattle  free  of  ticks  before  they  can  be  moved  is  a 
good  law,  and  it  will  not  be  very  hard  for  the  shipper  to  dip,  spray,  or  use 
some  other  method  of  cleaning  the  cattle  of  ticks.  This  law  has  not  bothered 
our  trade  in  the  least. 

Mr.  J.  K.  Shippey.  of  the  firm  of  Shippey  Bros.  &  White,  is 
quoted  as  follows: 

The  quality  of  the  cattle  sold  in  Atlanta  has  improved  quite  a  little  in  the 
last  six  years.     The  greatest  amount  of  improvement  is  yet  to  come,  however, 


22  EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION. 

for  the  distribution  of  good  beef  bulls  has  uot  been  very  extensive  in  Georgia. 
This  is  shown  by  the  cattle  sold  on  the  market.  Nevertheless,  a  start  has  been 
made,  and  other  improvements  should  follow.  The  new  law  requiring  all 
cattle  to  be  free  of  ticks  before  they  are  moved  from  place  to  place  has  not 
affected  the  receipts  of  cattle  at  all.  We  are  anxious  to  cooperate  with  the 
tick-eradication  officials  in  any  way  we  can  for  the  betterment  of  the  cattle 
industry,  and  the  extermination  of  the  cattle  tick  will  be  one  of  the  greatest 
blessings  which  could  come  upon  the  farmers. 

VIEWS  OF  COUNTY  OFFICIALS. 

To  obtain  further  information  of  the  attitude  of  the  people  toward 
the  work  of  tick  eradication.  Dr.  J.  A.  Kiernan,  of  the  Bureau  of 
Animal  Industry,  wrote  to  the  county  board  of  supervisors  or  the 
county  health  officer  of  counties  in  which  tick  eradication  had  been 
completed,  asking  if  they  had  derived  any  benefits  from  the  work. 
The  answers  received  from  the  different  county  officials  are  given 
below.  Many  of  these  statements  show  clearly  that  material  benefits 
far  in  excess  of  the  cost  of  the  work  are  received  in  a  short  time. 

From  Hon.  Frank  L.  Lynch,  county  judge  of  Franklin  County,  Winchester, 
Tenn.,  April  25,  1912 :  The  work  of  tick  eradication  was  finished  in  this  county 
last  year.  I  do  not  think  that  during  my  tenure  of  office,  covering  10  years.  1 
have  done  anything  that  has  been  more  generally  approved  by  and  was  of  more 
material  benefit  to  the  people  in  this  county.  Practically  all  of  our  farmers 
raise  more  or  less  cattle,  and  many  cattle  are  shipped  out  now  from  this  county 
each  year;  and  by  virtue  of  being  a  free  territory  the  farmers  realize  from 
$6  to  $10  a  head  above  what,  they  did  when  we  were  under  the  quarantine. 

From  Mr.  J.  C.  White,  president  of  the  Rankin  County  and  Lincoln  County 
Live-Stock  Association,  Brandon,  Miss.,  December  1,  1912:  In  response  to  your 
letter  asking  for  a  description  of  the  work  done  in  behalf  of  tick  eradication 
in  Rankin  County,  with  my  opinion  of  the  same,  it  gives  me  great  pleasure  to 
state  that  this  work  was  started  under  many  difficulties  about  November  10, 
1911.  by  building  the  first  vat  near  Brandon.  The  work  of  building  the  vats 
continued  through  the  winter,  being  necessarily  slow  on  account  of  the  roads 
and  bad  weather.  We  commenced  the  dipping  of  cattle  under  inspection  May  1. 
1912;  several  vats  were  not  finished  until  30  days  later.  This  dipping  was 
continued  regularly  all  through  the  season,  and  in  October,  1912,  the  Govern- 
ment showed  that  Rankin  County  dipped  more  cattle  than  any  other  county  in 
Mississippi.  The  results  have  been  as  follows:  Cattle  have  grown  better,  fat- 
tened faster,  and  sold  for  more  money  for  the  same  class  of  animals  than  during 
any  previous  season.  Cattle  buyers  from  other  counties  not  engaged  in  tick 
eradication  at  all  times  endeavor  to  bring  their  cattle  from  surrounding  terri- 
tory to  be  dipped  and  shipped  out  of  Rankin  County  so  they  can  receive  the 
increased  price  for  them. 

The  work  has  been  in  progress  under  inspection  only  since  May  1,  1912. 
and  at  the  present  time  over  three-fifths  of  the  county  has  been  recommended 
by  the  United  States  inspector  in  charge  for  release  from  quarantine  April  1, 
1913,  after  which  it  will  be  free  territory.  The  rest  of  the  county  will  prob- 
ably be  released  a  short  time  after. 

In  the  present  forward  state  of  the  work  which  is  now  so  near  completion,  the 
cost  so  far  to  Rankin  County  has  been  about  $4,000,  or  20  cents  per  head  for 
the  estimated  amount  of  grown  cattle  in  said  county ;  and  the  work  will  prob- 
ably be  finished  at  a  cost  all  told  of  from  25  to  30  cents  per  head. 


EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION.  23 

I  can  not  too  highly  indorse  the  work  of  tick  eradication,  judging  by  the 
benefits  already  received.  As  conditions  in  this  county  have  changed  to  such 
an  extent  by  the  introduction  of  the  boll  weevil  in  the  last  few  years  that  it 
is  now  impossible  to  raise  our  staple  crop — cotton — in  paying  quantities,  wo 
must  depend  on  cattle  as  our  source  of  ready  money  from  this  time  on ;  and 
they  can  not  be  raised  with  profit  without  tick  eradication. 

From  Hon.  George  P.  Burnett,  county  judge  of  Cumberland  County,  Cross- 
ville,  Tenn.,  April  19,  1912:  Some  five  or  six  years  ago  Cumberland  County  be- 
came infected  with  the  cattle  tick.  Steps  were  immediately  taken  by  the  de- 
partment to  eradicate  the  tick,  strict  quarantine  regulations  were  established, 
and  all  proper  and  necessary  steps  taken  for  the  complete  eradication  of  the 
disease.  Within  12  months  the  quarantine  was  raised,  and  our  county  has  been 
free  from  the  cattle  tick  ever  since.  There  is  not  to  my  knowledge  a  single 
neighborhood  where  the  tick  can  be  found. 

The  injury  to  our  county  by  the  infection  was  great,  since  cattle  raising  is 
one  of  our  chief  industries,  and  had  the  disease  continued  I  know  of  no  other 
one  thing  that  could  have  brought  a  greater  loss  to  our  farmers  and  cattlemen. 

From  Dr.  E.  W.  Hale,  commissioner  of  health  for  Shelby  County.  Memphis, 
Tenn.,  May  14,  1912:  In  answer  to  your  letter  in  regard  to  the  results  of  the 
work  of  tick  eradication  in  Shelby  County,  would  say  that  we  have  been  en- 
gaged in  this  work  for  about  five  years.  When  the  work  was  begun  the  cattle 
from  this  county  sold  for  about  3  cents  a  pound  gross  weight ;  now  they  bring 
from  4  to  5  cents  per  pound.  Much  of  this  results  from  tick  eradication.  When 
we  first  began  this  work  cattle  could  only  be  shipped  to  other  markets  three 
months  in  the  year,  and  then  only  for  immediate  slaughter,  and  now  they  can 
be  shipped  out  of  the  county  to  any  market  at  any  time  and  without  any 
restrictions. 

For  the  first  two  or  three  years  there  was  great  opposition  from  the  farmers 
and  great  difficulty  on  the  part  of  this  board  in  carrying  on  the  work;  now  the 
farmers  see  the  great  advantage  of  it,  and  they  cooperate  with  us  in  every 
way.  There  has  been  new  interest  felt  in  cattle  raising  in  this  county,  better 
grade  of  stock,  more  buyers,  better  prices,  and  many  more  shipped  to  other 
markets. 

The  ticks  have  been  practically  eliminated  from  the  infected  pastures.  In 
short,  the  cattle  industry  has  been  revolutionized  in  this  county,  and  in  a  few 
years  the  value  of  the  cattle  industry  will  be  increased  to  an  extent  that  would 
seem  incredible.  The  work  is  now  being  fully  appreciated,  and  what  was  at 
first  condemned  and  opposed  from  almost  every  quarter  is  now  being  praised 
and  assisted  by  all  our  farmers. 

From  Hon.  J.  R.  Hogue,  county  judge  of  Overton  County,  Livingston,  Tenn., 
April  20,  1912 :  The  people  of  Overton  County  are  highly  pleased  with  the  result 
of  tick  eradication  here.  The  quarantine  has  been  lifted  and  our  cattle  go  on 
the  market  in  much  better  condition  than  before  and  therefore  bring  better 
prices,  because  they  get  much  more  flesh,  both  on  the  wild  ranges  and  in  the 
inclosed  pastures. 

We  have  absolutely  gotten  rid  of  all  ticks  of  every  kind  which  were  here  in 
abundance  four  years  ago.  The  eradication  of  the  cattle  tick  was  the  greatest 
boon  to  our  stock  farmers  of  anything  that  ever  has  been  or  could  be  done  for 
them,  and  now  they  know  it ;  but  when  the  movement  first  struck  this  county  it 
was  the  most  unpopular  thing  ever  heard  of,  and  now  is  the  most  popular. 

From  Hon.  W.  H.  Potter,  county  judge  of  Scott  County,  Huntsville,  Tenn., 
April  22,  1912 :  In  answer  to  your  letter  of  the  18th  instant  in  reference  to  the 
tick  question,  we  had  some  ticks  up  to  last  year,  but  for  the  last  year  no  ticks 


24  EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION. 

have  been  found  in  iny  county.  The  county  authorities  have  had  a  tick  in- 
spector until  the  last  year,  and  we  don't  find  that  there  are  any  ticks  here  now 
and  have  no  inspector  this  year.  If  it  should  be  that  we  find  any  ticks  we  will 
have  an  inspector  and  destroy  what  we  can.  As  I  now  see  it.  the  ticks  will 
soon  be  exterminated.  T  hope  that  the  people  will  use  all  of  the  precaution 
that  they  can  to  rid  the  country  of  this  pest. 

From  Mr.  T.  M.  Gailbreath,  chairman  of  the  county  court  of  Jackson  County*, 
Gaiuesboro,  Tenn.,  April  2S,  1912 :  In  reply  to  your  letter  of  the  lSth  instant 
will  say  that  the  people  of  this  (Jackson)  county  are  highly  pleased  with  the 
eradication  of  the  cattle  ticks.  Our  cattle  can  be  sold  in  an  open  market  and 
bring  much  better  prices;  can  be  marketed  at  any  season  of  the  year  without 
inspection,  which  is  a  very  great  advantage  over  the  conditions  existing  before 
we  got  rid  of  the  ticks.  Young  cattle  grow  much  faster  and  get  fat  on  the 
pasture  and  on  the  range.  Milch  cows  do  much  better  in.  every  way,  giving 
more  milk  and  keeping  in  better  condition  and  much  easier  wintered.  It  would 
be  hard  to  estimate  the  benefit  the  farmer  and  stock  raisers  have  derived  from 
the  eradication  of  the  ticks,  the  benefits  being  seen  and  appreciated  in  so 
many  ways. 

From  Dr.  J.  F.  Adams,  county  health  officer  of  Cannon  County,  Bradville, 
Tenn. :  Replying  to  your  favor  of  the  Gth  instant  regarding  estimate  of  bene- 
fits received  from  tick  eradication  in  this  county,  will  say  that  while  the  work 
was  in  progress  the  men  in  charge  met  with  more  or  less  friction',  and  often  I 
have  heard  it  said  that  tick  eradication  was  not  going  to  be  of  any  value  to  us, 
but  since  the  quarantine  has  been  raised  our  cattle  have  brought  better  prices 
than  ever  before,  and  farmers  have  entered  into  the  business  of  raising  cattle 
with  renewed  energy,  so  that  now  our  cattle  industry  is  a  source  of  far  greater 
revenue  to  the  farmers  of  this  county  than  ever  before.  Aside  from  getting 
rid  of  the  tick  we  have  been  educated  in  many  ways,  and  at  least  a  part  of  our 
improved  methods  of  farming  is  no  doubt  directly  due  to  lessons  we  learned 
while  tick  eradication  was  in  progress.  Certainly  the  work  can  not  easily  be 
overestimated  in  a  county  like  ours,  where  the  raising  of  cattle  is  a  source 
of  so  great  revenue  and  where  so  much  improvement  in  this  industry  is  now 
being  made  manifest.  Our  farmers  are  enlarging  their  herds  and  improving 
the  breeds,  and  coming  as  it  does  directly  in  the  wake  of  tick  eradication  forces 
us  to  the  conclusion  that  the  educational  value  of  tick  eradication  is  worth  the 
money  we  expended  here. 

From  Hon.  Charles  T.  Williamson,  county  judge  of  Marion  County,  Jasper, 
Tenn.,  April  19,  1912 :  Farming  and  cattle  raising  are  the  chief  industries  of 
Marion  County,  and  in  the  eradication  of  the  cattle  tick  the  citizens  have  been 
greatly  benefited.  In  fact  this  has  done  more  to  increase  the  profits  of  the 
farmers  and  encourage  the  raising  of  blooded  cattle  than  any  one  occurrence  in 
the  history  of  the  county. 

Since  this  county  has  been  placed  above  the  quarantine  line  there  has  been  a 
marked  increase  in  the  cattle  business,  and  that  is  the  avocation  this  section 
is  especially  adapted  for.  Just  the  fact  that  cattle  are  raised  and  fattened 
above  the  quarantine  line  makes  a  perceptible  difference  in  the  price  per  pound 
in  the  northern  and  eastern  markets. 

This  stroke  of  progress  not  only  caused  hundreds  of  farmers  of  this  county  to 
invest  in  blooded  cattle,  but  along  with  this  advancement  came  improved  farm- 
ing methods.  It  is  natural  that  when  a  man  gets  one  thing  of  the  best  he  then 
strives  to  bring  all  his  interests  up  to  that  standard.  This  is  being  done  in  this 
county,  and  we  are  now  farming  more  intelligently  and  getting  better  results. 

The  eradication  of  the  cattle  tick  is  a  great  thing  for  Marion  County,  and 
all  the  citizens  highly  appreciate  this  commendable  work. 


EFFECTS    OF    TICK    ERADICATION.  25 

From  Hon.  L.  E.  Davis,  county  judge  of  Benton  County.  Camden,  Tenn., 
May  1.  1912:  Almost  three  years  ago  we  took  up  the  work  of  tick  eradication 
iu  Benton  County.  We  met  with  a  .meat  deal  of  opposition  at  first,  but  at 
the  end  of  the  first  season  the  results  were  so  marked  that  many  who  first 
opposed  the  work  came  to  us  and  expressed  themselves  as  entirely  satisfied 
that  it  was  possible  to  rid  our  county  of  the  tick — and  we  got  a  large  propor- 
tion of  our  territory  released  from  quarantine  the  first  year.  But  where  we 
did  not  get  the  cooperation  of  the  people  the  work  was  slow,  and  the  result 
was  that  we  have  a  small  portion  of  our  county  quarantined  yet,  but  we  hope 
to  get  entirely  free  this  year,  and  possibly  by  the  1st  of  July.  At  our  April 
term  of  county  court  the  question  was  before  the  court,  and  the  justices  that 
had  always  fought  it  before  spoke  in  favor  of  it  and  said  that  the  end  seemed 
so  near  that  they  could  not  afford  to  oppose  it  any  longer,  and  besides  they 
were  convinced  now  that  it  was  possible  to  rid  a  county  of  ticks.  The  cattle 
industry  has  grown  in  our  county  and  prices  have  more  than  doubled. 

In  conclusion,  I  feel  safe  in  saying  that  our  money  has  been  well  spent,  and 
I  believe  our  people  are  well  satisfied  with  the  work  and  are  fully  agreed  that 
any  county  or  territory  cau  rid  itself  of  the  fever  tick  under  Government 
supervision. 

I  hope  this  will  be  an  encouragement  to  some  others  to  take  up  the  work 
and  push  it  to  a  finish,  for  cattle  are  too  precious  for  the  tick  to  eat. 

From  Hon.  Ward  R.  Case,  county  judge  of  Fentress  County,  Jamestown. 
Tenn.,  April  22,  1912:  Replying  to  yours  of  the  ISth  instant,  will  say,  while 
there  was  at  first  some  hostility  on  the  part  of  the  farmers  toward  the  authori- 
ties endeavoring  to  eradicate  the  cattle  tick,  there  are  now  but  four  or  five 
farms  infected,  and  I  believe  the  people  generally  appreciate  what  has  been  done 
for  them  and  are  taking  an  increased  interest  in  improved  methods  of  stock 
raising  and  farming. 

From  Mr.  J.  R.  Brown,  chairman  of  the  county  court  of  Bradley  County, 
Cleveland,  Tenn.,  May  10.  1912 :  I  take  great  pleasure  in  stating  that  the  prog- 
ress made  in  the  eradication  of  the  cattle  ticks  in  Bradley  County,  Tenn.,  is 
entirely  satisfactory  to  all  the  people  of  the  county.  We  have  rid  our  county 
of  all  the  ticks,  with  the  bare  possibility  of  one  farm,  for  the  year  1912.  There 
were  no  deaths  or  sickness  for  1911. 

There  is  no  one  in  Bradley  County  who  would  dare  make  an  unfavorable 
criticism  of  the  good  work  and  results  of  the  completed  work.  To  say  that 
everybody  is  delighted  with  the  eradication  of  the  ticks  is  to  put  it  mildly. 

The  price  of  cattle  has  more  than  doubled.  The  first  eight  months  after  we 
got  above  the  national  quarantine  line  our  people  sold  and  had  shipped  between 
thirty  and  thirty-five  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  cattle  for  more  than  twice  the 
former  price.  The  interest  in  live  stock  has  had  a  great  uplift,  since  we  can 
raise  and  keep  our  cattle  with  the  certainty  of  their  living  to  maturity  and  to 
an  age  to  justify  a  profit  on  their  raising.  Our  county  is  being  filled  up  with 
better  breeds  of  cattle,  none  of  which  have  died;  this  could  not  be  doue  before 
1907,  the  beginning  of  our  work.  Money  would  be  of  no  inducement  to  us  to  go 
back  to  conditions  in  1906.  It  has  been  more  to  Bradley  County  than  any 
other  blessing  that  has  come  to  us  in  the  last  50  years. 

From  Dr.  John  Roberts,  health  officer  of  Roane  County,  Kingston,  Tenn.. 
May  G,  1912 :  The  people  of  Roane  County  are  all  highly  pleased  at  the  results 
obtained  from  eradicating  the  fever  tick  from  their  county.  We  were  three 
years  below  the  line  and  the  cattle  business  was  at  a  standstill,  but  we  spent 
two  years  in  a  successful  campaign  against  the  tick  and  are  now  released 
from  quarantine.  The  cattle  business  is  good  in  the  county  and  everybody  is 
pleased. 


26  EFFECTS   OF   TICK   ERADICATION. 

From  Messrs.  J.  C.  Crocker,  chairman,  and  J.  A.  Gibson,  clerk,  of  the  county 
court  of  Coffee  County.  Manchester,  Tenn.,  April  22.  1912 :  While  we  have  not 
heard  much  said  in  regard  to  the  eradication  of  the  Texas-fever  tick  for  some 
time,  yet  we  feel  safe  in  saying  that  we  are  sure  that  the  price  of  cattle  has 
advanced  at  least  25  per  cent  since  the  quarantine  was  raised,  thereby  increas- 
ing interest  in  cattle  raising  and  also  otherwise  improving  farming  methods. 
The  people  of  this  county  would  not  be  under  the  quarantine  for  any  amount 
of  money.  We  recommend  that  all  farmers  now  living  in  quarantine  territory 
take  hold  and  assist  in  every  way  possible  to  eradicate  the  fever  tick. 

From  the  board  of  health  of  Sequatchie  County,  Tenn.,  May  7.  1912 :  We  the 
undersigned,  county  board  of  health  of  this  county,  desire  to  make  the  following 
statement  in  regard  to  tick  eradication  in  our  county  :  We  began  this  work  five 
years  ago  this  spring  and  thoroughly  worked  at  it  for  three  years  and  have  suc- 
ceeded in  exterminating  the  ticks.  This  work  did  not  take  well  at  the  start 
with  a  considerable  number  of  our  people ;  in  fact,  some  indignation  meetings, 
with  large  crowds,  were  called  together  to  condemn  and  to  hinder  the  work,  but 
we  kept  the  work  going  under  the  instructions  and  assistance  of  your  office. 

This  is  a  good  cattle-raising  section,  and  the  farmers  are  more  interested  in 
this  business  than  ever.  We  have  been  acquainted  with  the  stock-raising  busi- 
ness in  this  county  for  40  years,  and  can  truthfully  state  that  good,  nice,  fat 
cattle  off  the  range  six  years  ago  sold  for  2  cents  per  pound,  and  from  2  cents 
to  2\  was  the  best  price  ever  received  before  the  work  of  tick  eradication. 
Since  then  our  stock  have  increased  in  value  every  year,  and  for  the  last  two 
or  three  years  our  people  have  sold  the  same  grade  of  cattle  off  the  range  for 
4  cents  per  pound,  and  no  trouble  to  find  buyers. 

Our  farmers  are  highly  pleased  over  the  conditions  which  now  exist,  and  it 
has  put  new  life  into  the  cattle  business  here. 

(Signed)  J.  A.  Lamb,  Chairman. 

Joe  Minton,  Secretary. 
J.  H.  Heard,  Judge. 

From  Mr.  W.  R.  Burton,  chairman  of  the  county  court  of  Moore  County, 
Lynchburg,  Tenn.,  April  20,  1912 :  We  are  very  grateful,  indeed,  for  what  has 
been  done  for  us  in  the  way  of  eradicating  the  tick,  and  can  not  find  words  in 
which  to  express  the  appreciation  of  the  good  people  of  our  county.  I  hope  that 
every  State  in  the  Union  will  be  free  from  the  tick  as  we  are.  It  gives  me  great 
pleasure  to  contribute  anything  that  would  be  of  any  benefit  in  eradicating 
the  tick. 

Any  reader  who  may  desire  verification  of  the  foregoing  state- 
ments as  to  the  advantages  of  tick  eradication  may  feel  free  to  write 
to  any  person  whose  name  has  been  given  in  this  bulletin,  as  permis- 
sion has  been  granted  in  each  case  to  use  the  statement  for  publication. 

.     o 


WASHINGTON  \  GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE  :  1914 


M.f!iX£Ru2'ir  OF  ^ORIDA 


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